For anyone that is interested the Tonto National Forest is revising their plan. On May 3, 2007 the Forest service has invited the public to review and comment on the plan for the Mesa ranger district. This is part of their new community involvement idea I guess. The meeting will be held at the Mesa library, upstairs in the Saguaro room at 5:30 pm on May 3. Apparentaly I was the ONLY climber that showed up to the meeting last month!

So I guess if you like climbing on bolts from the 70's in the Superstitions, go ahead and stay home. If you think a more relaxed bolting policy would save lives, or you just want to help make sure the Forest Service doesn't put up any more fences or fee boxes, come on out and lets tell them what the people want!

If they can carve trails out of the desert to bring people into the forest in droves, then certainly our trails up the mountains and walls should be serviceable without penalty. Email me if you need more details on the meeting. seanlehman@hotmail.com

It must be a general push to revise all national forest general plans because the Prescott National Forest is also in the same process. I am hopeful more of our rc.com members will go to the websites and email their comments and concerns. I commented that we need a climbing management plan and a rational look at falcon closures (granite mtn). Please go to the websites and comment:

Just got a letter from the Forest Service. It says that the second round of public collaboration meetings for forest plan revision that were scheduled in late April and early May have been postponed indefinitely.

On March 30, 2007 the United States District Court, Northern District of California, Ruled that the Forest Service could not use the 2005 planning rule under which the revision effort was proceeding until certain deficiencies were corrected. The Forest Service's Washington Office is currently deciding how to proceed in light of this ruling.